Friday, June 2, 2017

Panther Prowling (Otherworld #17) by Yasmine Galenorn

Delilah is ready to party – it’s her sister’s Camille’s
birthday and Menolly has just managed to re-open her bar; in the lull in the
war in the Otherworld they can have a break; a night off

Until their human cousin, Daniel, runs into their bar
chased by an angry Viking ghost.

Unfortunately their professional thief relative has
acquired a cursed and haunted sword – which comes with a family curse and a
whole lot of dangerous haunting and consequences which only his magical cousins
are equipped to deal with.

This series is huge. It has run for a huge number of
books. It has an absolutely enormous cast of character. It has a huge world
setting – several huge world settings. We have several metaplots all running
alongside each other, all intertwining and related and touching on each other.
And we have three protagonists all with their own lives and conflicts and relationships.
We have a household that not only has the three D’Artigo sisters but has
Camille’s three husbands, has Menolly’s wife, has Delilah’s husband. We have
Hannah and Vanzir and Rozuriel and Iris and her husband and her twins and Chase
and his daughter and then the gargoyle Maggie. And all of them have things
going on. And this is without looking at Roman, Rozuriel’s ex-wife, Smoky and
Shade’s extended families, the fae queens, Morgaine and the whole Arthurian
legend group, the various powers of the Otherword and then loads of friends and
neighbours dotted around the city…

We have a lot. We have so much. This world is huge and
rich and full of lots of important characters each with their own stories and
enough details to give each of them a realness and a presence that gives the
whole story and world depth

But my gods there’s a lot. And when we were introduced to
the sisters’ human family a couple of books ago part of me cringed because
there was no need for this to add to this already very full world and these
sisters’ already very full lives with very full missions. Especially when it
turns out that dear brother Daniel is a master thief ex-special forces magical
specialist – which means that’s a whole lot more complexity and storylines and
distractions added to what I already a very full series.

Which is the feeling I had through this book – we had
Daniel and the sword and Viking ghosts to try and deal with but it felt very
peripheral to the sisters’ lives. And we had moderately high stakes to make
sure they pay attention to it –but it felt like a distraction because there’s a
lot of other things going on. In fact, the attack on their house almost felt
like a way to drag them into the story again and make it all feel more relevant
to them since we haven’t really built that much relationship with Daniel yet. With
Camille’s new role with the Earthside Fae courts and Delilah’s issues with the
Autumn Lord which also includes some expanding powers and possible consequences
and we have love triangle issues with Hannah and Rozuriel with more looking at what
it means to be an incubus since we’ve been mentioning it for a while but never
really seen it developed. And there’s some sorcerer following Camille around
which is important or worrisome but it’s mentioned at the beginning and we don’t
really return to it. We add in a dose of

All this time we still technically have the War in
Otherworld and with Shadowing but I think the last time that played a relevant
role in the book was in Haunted
Moon – book 13; it’s now on book 17. And I get having breaks or occasional
distractions but this is a very long deviation from the main metaplot
especially since it’s so random, unrelated to that main metaplot and just
feeling quite random an inclusion. It also kind of leaves me wondering just how
much supernatural activity there can be in Seattle – because these aren’t
things specifically targeting the sisters or because of the war – it’s just
random supernatural stuff happening in this city ALL THE TIME.

It’s not that this is a bad story – far from it. In fact
I think there has been a greater improvement on pacing as well. It doesn’t feel
like as much time is spent on describing which car they’re going to drive or
exactly which route they’re taking or exactly what food they’re eating. I mean
there’s some of that – there always is, it’s part of the style of books – but it
flowed better. The whole concept of the ghosts and involvement of the Elder fae
and the legends and curses all worked really well together to make a fun story
all within this awesome world that is so rich and layered and has fully drawn
on 17 books worth of world building.

But it still feels peripheral, unnecessary and distracting
from the main plot lines of these books – the D’Artigo sisters’ human cousins
feel like a distraction and unnecessary addition to something that is already
so huge.

On inclusion we do have Menolly who is bisexual and
married to a woman - Narrissa is also
bisexual. They actually use the world which is so rare in fiction – usually we
get assumption or euphemism. Menolly and Nerissa are having relationship issues
but they’re very based on Menolly’s personality and issues than with her
sexuality. I do think we have a dubiousness with the idea that they are
monogamous with each other – except for men, especially since Menolly’s
relationship with Roman is definitely not casual.

We have a dubious brief visit for the occasionally seen Gay
Maris friend – but he turns up to talk about his activism for the fae which
he draws a lot of gross appropriation comparison to LGBT rights – only makes it
even worse by saying “I won my battles” so now he’s fighting for the fae. Which
both draws a direct comparison and appropriation between LGBT people and
magical people eating-creatures and implies that the battle for LGBT rights is
a done deal. If this is what we’re getting in that 1 book in 10, two second
appearance of this Maris than he can still invisible.

We do have some fae who are dark skinned – because every
character bar a very few are not human and don’t necessarily parallel to human
cultures, ethnicities or races. Morio is Japanese though as an Earthbound
supernatural. Trillian is a black skinned fae, Shade has brown skin and is
clearly described as a man of colour. We also are introduced to some of Delilah’s
fellow death maidens some of which are women of colour but at the moment they’re
really only names so far (and this was something else I’d love to see developed
more than these distractions).

Basically it’s a good book with excellent characters in
an amazing world that has had 17 book to just grow larger and larger and deeper
and deeper and richer and richer which I just love. But we’re so far off topic
at the moment and I’d much rather see these characters get back on path rather
than expanding every further to an ever broader cast (necessitating more and
more recapping).